Dogs Which Are Sacrificed By The Shang Dynasty

Life was short and sometimes brutal for many of the dogs of the Shang dynasty of China. New research shows that most of the canines slaughtered during this Bronze Age were only puppies, with some of them buried alive.

The Shang dynasty ruled the Yellow River valley of China between 1600 BC. C. and 1046 A. C., the second of the dynasties of China, after the Xia, which was established around 2070 BC. The Shang practiced both human and animal sacrifice, disposing of the sacrificial remains in the burial pits or resting the sacrifices in the tombs of the dead. Dogs were often buried in pits just below the torso of the deceased, perhaps to act as an eternal guard in the afterlife.

However, surprisingly, most of these eternal guard dogs were puppies, said Roderick Campbell, an archaeologist with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. [25 cultures that practiced human sacrifice]

"Puppies, that sounds horrible," Campbell told Live Science. "Why would you sacrifice a cute puppy? On the other hand, if it's not your puppy and you're living in a society where you do not have the same dog assumptions and tenderness ... it's a cheaper investment in the animal. upload it yourself. "

Puppies of sacrifice

Campbell and his colleague Zhipeng Li of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences collected data from multiple sites in the Shang Dynasty where dog sacrifices occurred and published the research in March in the journal Archaeological Research in Asia. It is difficult for foreign scientists to obtain excavation permits in China, Campbell said, so the data comes in large part from older findings made by several researchers.

Dogs, Campbell said, have been used in rituals in China during the time the archaeological evidence is extended; there are dog burials dating back 9,000 years in the Neolithic settlement of Jiahu.

Pigs were also commonly slaughtered by the ancient Chinese, Campbell said. But throughout the Bronze Age, he said, sheep, goats and cows were slaughtered more often, perhaps because increased trade links with western Eurasia brought these animals to the central plains of China. The inscriptions on oracle bones suggest that the dogs continued to be sacrificed, particularly to the gods of heaven. It is possible, said Campbell, that these sacrifices to the gods of heaven were ancient traditions, established when dogs and pigs were the most common sacrificial animal.

By: Preeti Narula

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